


Who Shall Stand

by Vana



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Gen, Gore, M/M, Torture, Why am I doing this?, a little of the old ultraviolence, flaying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-05-09
Packaged: 2018-01-24 04:31:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1591778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vana/pseuds/Vana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Bastard of Bolton has Davos, and Stannis is forced to watch him play his games.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Who Shall Stand

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry for all this in advance. It was an ASOIAF kink meme prompt, one I never thought I'd fill, but apparently this wanted to be written by me.

Stannis is not chained, but Asha is and she is screaming but Stannis can hardly hear her. 

The Bastard of Bolton strips the skin from the four fingers on the right hand of the smuggler, then a blurred time later hacks them off — messily, relishingly. Davos is so strong, the strongest man Stannis has ever known. His eyes are fixed on the middle distance and he does not look at his king. Ramsay draws patterns with a thin precise knife — bloody eyes of weirwoods and mocking faces of seven gods and a red caricature of R’hllor — into Davos’ arms and chest. Stannis sees the muscles flexing and the blood seeping out with each movement. Asha cries out _is this a punishment from the gods_? and Ramsay says _no, this is a punishment from me_. Stannis chips a tooth clenching and swallows it, half hoping he could choke.

Ramsay licks his lips looking at Stannis staring and makes insinuations. _You want me to fuck him, you want me to make him fuck me while you watch?_ Stannis reaches for the hilt of Lightbringer and Ramsay goes back to his work. 

“I will kill him, you know,” Ramsay says, and he is angry. 

“Then get on with it,” Stannis grinds out, keeping his voice in monotone. He will betray nothing or Davos will suffer more. 

Last, the Bastard tells Davos that his wife and all his sons are dead. Devan is alive but Davos has no way of knowing that and Stannis won’t tell him. He doesn’t want Davos to have any more to live for, to live through this for. Davos’ eyes go a milky pale color and Stannis knows he has nearly ended it. _You told me you could will yourself dead — on the Blackwater, on Skagos. All you had to do was nothing, you said. Do it now. Do nothing now_. 

But Stannis can still see him breathing and so when Ramsay begins to flay the stumps of fingers Stannis had cut, taking a finger in his hand, peeling the skin from a stub, the king finally rises — 

_he’s mine_

_those are mine._ And he will not watch any more so

with Asha stunned into silence 

with the Bastard’s voice very far away

with the last door closing behind him, he slides Lightbringer tenderly through Davos’ heavy body. And he holds the sword to Ramsay’s neck and makes him sign the Treaty of Winterfell. And the metal catches its own fire, and Asha whispers _By the gods, you’ve done it_. And Ramsay is frightened at the end, just before Asha, wrenched free with her wrist bloody and torn, slices his throat open with her dagger. The room goes dark, but the sword, lit with the shards of Davos’ heart’s blood, glows warm and strong. The last sound Stannis hears is Asha weeping.


End file.
